13. Confucius vs. Kerouac: A Brief Interlude

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!'" -Jack Kerouac, On the Road

"The Master said, 'If you cannot manage to find a person of perfectly balanced character to associate with, I suppose you must settle for the wild or the fastidious. In their pursuit of the Way, the wild plunge right in, while the fastidious are always careful not to get their hands dirty.'"
-Confucius, Analects, 13.21

I find this juxtaposition to be perfectly hilarious. Next to Confucius, the wise grandfather, does not Kerouac seem the child? But the question is: childlike or childish, to use Friedrich Schiller's brilliant distinction from his essay called "On Naïve and Sentimental Poetry?" Here are lines from Schiller's famously inspirational poem, "Ode to Joy:"

45 Joyful as His suns are flying
46 Across the Firmament's splendid design
47 Run, brothers, run your race
48 Joyful, as a hero going to conquest.
49 As truth's fiery reflection
50 It smiles at the scientist

Cajal, the scientist, had a fiercely romantic heart, yet he succeeded in cultivating a more or less balanced mind. From Recollections: "ideas, like the white water-lily, flourish only in tranquil waters"[404]. I am finishing up that book, and will then post on the final section. I close with Confucius, on joy:

"The Master said, 'One who knows it is not equal of one who loves it, and one who loves it is not the equal of one who takes joy in it.'"
-Analects, 6.20